This blog is mainly about the spectacular train wreck at The Sacramento Bee and its parent company, the McClatchy Company. But I also post about current events, the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, politics, anything else that grabs my attention. Take a look around this blog, hope you enjoy it.

Thursday, January 29, 2009

Will the Seattle Times, half-owned by McClatchy, be the next newspaper to file for bankruptcy?

On Wednesday, worries that the dominant Seattle daily may soon file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection crept out into the open when an administrator for the union that represents Times employees mentioned the possibility in an e-mail to union members.

"Within the Guild we have been preparing for a number of worst-case scenarios, including the possibility that the Times might enter the Chapter 11 bankruptcy process," wrote Liz Brown, administrator for the union, the Pacific Northwest Newspaper Guild.

Brown's e-mail came in response to an earlier e-mail from Times managers suggesting that a union employee pension freeze might be sought in upcoming contract negotiations. Brown's e-mail also noted the "scary times for newspapers and newspaper employees" and predicted that the Times would seek further concessions from the union when those contract negotiations get underway. (The paper has already instituted unpaid furloughs and pension freezes for its non-union managers.)

After Brown's e-mail went out, Alayne Fardella, Senior Vice President for Business Operations at The Seattle Times Company, sent a response to Times managers. Fardella specifically mentioned Brown's e-mail, did not deny that Chapter 11 is a possibility, and said the company is keeping all options open.

Among Times reporters, according to one newsroom source, it's "commonly understood, or presumed" that a bankruptcy filing by the Times is "a very likely next step within the year." However, at a staff meeting on Wednesday, David Boardman, executive editor for the Times, presented bankruptcy as a last-ditch option—and a highly unappealing one to the paper's owners, given that it would allow a court to step in and exert a certain amount of control over the paper's business model. The implication was that significant concessions by the reporters' union in upcoming contract negotiations could help avoid that difficult scenario.

www.sfgate.comCALIFORNIANewspaper staffs told to take leaveTom AbateThursday, January 29, 2009

About 3,300 staffers who work at 29daily newspapers in California run by the MediaNews Group must take an unpaid, one-week furlough in February or March as a possible alternative to layoffs, the company said Wednesday.

The Capital-Gazette in Annapolis didn’t beat around the bush, they at least came straight out with the bad news. Some employees say they would rather hear the truth than live in a rumor mill. -------Capital-Gazette cuts jobs; will print elsewhere-

Word is, many coffee houses have closed and canceled their subscriptions. Seattle Democrat/leeches are grief-stricken without their daily liberal propaganda report. Without it, they may even have a fair election, and elect their government officials without fraud. No more three ballot recounts? Yeah, right.

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